An Exclusive For You Revenge and Homeland Junkies: Meet Your New Favorite Show, Hunted, and Its Star, Melissa George

You might need some cardio to warm up for this show: on Hunted, Melissa George plays a spy seeking justice after surviving a would-be assassination--one that looks like it came from her own team. (The show premieres tomorrow night at 11 p.m. on Cinemax.) George fans know her from her can't-look-away presence in shows like In Treatment and Grey's Anatomy--but this heart-pounding series, which is kinda like Revenge meets Homeland, is undoubtedly her most powerful role yet.

You might need some cardio to warm up for this show: on Hunted, Melissa George plays a spy seeking justice after surviving a would-be assassination--one that looks like it came from her own team. (The show premieres tomorrow night at 11 p.m. on Cinemax.) George fans know her from her can't-look-away presence in shows like In Treatment and Grey's Anatomy--but this heart-pounding series, which is kinda like Revenge meets Homeland, is undoubtedly her most powerful role yet.

If you've got a few minutes, just try to watch the show's first few scenes without getting hooked. I'm video-shy, but I promise this is well worth your watch. I was literally holding my breath the entire time:

After I picked myself up off the floor, I hopped on the phone with Melissa, who's currently holed up in Paris.

What drew you to Hunted and the character of Sam?

Melissa: A strong woman is always captivating. And the show's not glossy, it's not fancy, like in some shows where you see a woman fighting. The fighting for me was very real--we worked hard to make it realistic. I was nervous, because it's so different [actually doing it] than when you're comfortably sitting in a cafe, reading the script.

Because she survives this attempt on her life and suddenly suspects everyone, it's a very solitary existence Sam has. How did you get into that headspace on set?

Melissa: I've spent most of the time filming very alone. And I'm very much a team player. Though my parents would disagree with that, since I was thrown out of school a few times.

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Who did you talk to if you couldn't really bond with people on set, for the sake of your performance?

Melissa: My driver, George--who's amazing, he's in his sixties, from Scotland--became my psychologist by the end of the show. And playing this character, there was so little energy left for me to be entertaining everybody. I was only two weeks into filming when I had a towel over my head thinking, 'I don't know if I can do this.'

The physical preparation for a role like this had to be brutal.

Melissa: It was almost like gladiator training. Like, a steel ball being thrown over your head and you have to catch it, and learning no matter what punch is thrown how to improvise and move. I worked with a Keysi (editor's note: that's a fighting method shown off in the Bourne Supremacy flicks, among others) fighting team. And I went to spy school.

Ooh. What do you learn at spy school?

Melissa: [laughs] I'm not allowed to say.

There's a moment--this isn't a big spoiler or anything--when you have to do pretty much the most intense thing I've ever seen done onscreen. You have to light a guy on fire, then shoot him.

Melissa: I hated doing that. The poor guy. I had to physically put the gas on him, light a match and throw it on him. In the scene he's literally burning in front of me, and then I have to scramble to get the gun and fire a round. Plus, we're in Morocco, we've been shooting since six o'clock in the morning, it's raining, I'm freezing, I'm in a dress...

Speaking of her wardrobe: it really stood out to me in the pilot, the way Sam dresses. So often kickass girls are dressed in, like, skintight, skimpy stuff as they do all these ridiculously physical things. I loved that Sam was in normal clothes that allow movement.

Melissa: We worked very hard on that, to dress her realistically and in a way that I can fight. And like any woman she has her favorite bag, her favorite scarf [that make her feel like herself].

Hunted is debuting in the midst of a powerful moment for strong, complex heroines on TV. From whom do you draw inspiration?

Melissa: When Jessica Lange commits to a scene, she does magic. Jennifer Jason Leigh gives these dynamic, guttural performances. I've learned from them: mean what you say, and don't be all 'actor' about it. Get ugly.

It seems like you'll have plenty of chances to do that with Sam--she's living in a tough world, and there's so much we don't know about her yet.

Melissa: That's why I wanted to do Hunted so badly--it's an opportunity to play all those complexities. I don't want to be the girlfriend or the wife who lives in a pretty house and has nothing to say and has no tragedy and no past. I want these types of roles, and I take them all the time, because there's something inside me that needs to come out.